Amanda Demme - She Nice

just got back from interviewing Amanda Demme, the so-called Queen of LA Nightlife, and marketing brain behind 'hot' nightlife venues like Teddy's and Tropicana at the Roosevelt. If you go online and google her, you'll find a fair amount of press on Amanda, most of it bitchy gawker.com and Perez Hilton style reportage. So I was expecting Ms Demme to be something of prima donna...

But, as they say the proof of the pudding is in the eating - I just met the girl and she's fucking awesome. No airs, no graces. Despite what she does and who she is, strangely enough she is one of the LEAST Hollywood people I've met in Hollywood. We sat on the porch of her house in the Valley and she chatted about how she started out running the door at The World nightclub in NYC, began managing bands at the age of 21 and about the death of her husband Ted Demme (he directed 'Blow') six weeks after she gave birth to their second child. She talked about how weird it is to have the public spotlight on you, and how it terrifies her. She talked more about her two kids than she did about nightclubs or celebrities. Above all, she struck me as a hard-as-nails businesswoman who could give two shits about the glitz and glamour. "You'd never think it but I'm pretty introverted," she told me.

Believe me, I've interviewed enough people in my time to smell when someone is laying on the "I'm so humble" bullshit. But this girl was 100% legit, a straightforward broad who tells it how it is. Look out for my ass-kissy piece coming out late April in the LA Weekly's People issue.